What is the Difference Between Lupus and Sjogren’s Syndrome

The key difference between lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome is that lupus is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs, while Sjogren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects tear and saliva producing glands, nose, throat, skin, and vagina.

Lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome are two different types of autoimmune diseases. An autoimmune disease is a medical condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks its own body cells. During an autoimmune disease, the immune system cannot differentiate between foreign cells and own body cells. Therefore, it releases proteins called autoantibodies to attack healthy cells.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Lupus  
3. What is Sjogren’s Syndrome
4. Similarities – Lupus and Sjogren’s Syndrome
5. Lupus vs Sjogren’s Syndrome in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Lupus vs Sjogren’s Syndrome

What is Lupus?

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs in the body. The inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems. Lupus is often difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms mimic those of other ailments. Moreover, no two cases of lupus are exactly alike. These signs and symptoms may come on suddenly or may develop slowly, may be mild or severe, and also may be temporary or permanent.

However, the most distinctive sign of lupus is a facial rash, which resembles the wings of a butterfly. This rash normally infolds across both cheeks. The other signs and symptoms may include fatigue, fever, joint pain, skin lesions that appear or worsen with sunlight, fingers, and toes that turn white or blue, shortness of breath, chest pain, dry eyes, headaches, confusion, and memory loss. Lupus can be diagnosed through physical examination, a combination of blood and urine tests, including complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, kidney, and liver assessment, urinalysis, antinuclear antibody (ANA) test, imaging tests (X-ray, echocardiogram), and skin biopsy. Furthermore, treatments are provided for lupus through medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antimalarial drugs (hydroxychloroquine), corticosteroids, immunosuppressants (azathioprine, mycophenolate, methotrexate, cyclosporine), and biologics (belimumab, rituximab).

What is Sjogren’s Syndrome?

Sjogren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects tear and saliva-producing glands, nose, throat, skin, and vagina in the body. In rare cases, Sjogren’s syndrome can affect the liver, kidneys, or lungs. Women are usually affected more than men by Sjogren’s syndrome. The average age of onset is around 45 to 55 years old.

The signs and symptoms may include dry mouth, dry or burning eyes, a sensation of grittiness in the eyes, swelling of glands around the neck or the head, trouble swallowing, irritation of the esophagus and acid reflux, fatigue, joint pain, rashes, inflammation of the lungs, and problems with liver or kidney functioning. This autoimmune disease can be diagnosed through blood and urine tests, Schirmer’s tests for tear glands, ocular surface staining for eyes, salivary gland function scans, a biopsy of lips, sialometry, which measures the flow of saliva, and ultrasonography of the major salivary glands. Furthermore, treatment options for Sjogren’s syndrome may include eye drops to keep eyes moist, gum, lozenges, saliva substitutes, drugs that help the mouth produce more saliva, antibiotics, antifungal medications, irrigation for dry noses, acid reflux drugs (proton pump inhibitors, H2 blockers), and steroids to suppress the immune system.

What are the Similarities Between Lupus and Sjogren’s Syndrome?

• Lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome are two different types of autoimmune diseases.
• Lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome can occur together.
• Women are affected mostly by both diseases.
• Genetics and environmental factors trigger both autoimmune diseases.

What is the Difference Between Lupus and Sjogren’s Syndrome?

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs in the body, while Sjogren’s syndrome lupus is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects tear and saliva producing glands, nose, throat, skin, and vagina in the body. Thus, this is the key difference between lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome. Furthermore, the average age of the onset of lupus is around 15 to 45 years old, but the average age of the onset of Sjogren’s syndrome is around 45 to 55 years old.

The below infographic presents the differences between lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – Lupus vs Sjogren’s Syndrome

Lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome are two different types of autoimmune diseases. Often, lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome can occur together. Lupus mainly affects joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs in the body, while Sjogren’s syndrome mainly affects tear and saliva producing glands, nose, throat, skin, and vagina in the body. So, this is the key difference between lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome.

Reference:

1. “Lupus.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
2. Robinson, Kara Mayer. “Sjogren’s Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment.” WebMD.

Image Courtesy:

1. “OSC Microbio 19 02 Lupus” By CNX OpenStax –  (CC BY 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Sjogrens Syndrome” By Scientific Animations – (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia